1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a chassis for a battery-operated industrial truck. The chassis has a center chassis section that is configured to hold a battery block and is open on top, has a forward transverse wall, a rear transverse wall, an open side wall provided with a lateral battery compartment opening (B), and a closed side wall (8) which is at a distance from the open side wall (7) in the transverse direction of the chassis.
2. Technical Considerations
An industrial truck chassis is described in DE 103 42 659 A1. On this chassis, to reinforce the chassis, a battery door is provided on the open side wall with which the battery compartment opening can be closed and which, when the door is closed, can absorb tension, compression and torsion forces. The battery door thereby forms an integral, force-transmitting component of the frame.
If the battery is replaced using a process that requires a second industrial truck which must drive close to the battery compartment opening to remove the battery, it is necessary to open the battery door by 180 degrees. For this purpose, a battery door with a double hinge is provided on an industrial truck having a chassis of the type described above. Together with the function of the battery door of reinforcing the chassis, which requires not only a stable configuration of the door panel but also of the hinge and interlocking components, the result is a significant expense in terms of design and construction.
Therefore, it is an object of this invention to provide a chassis of the general type described above but which achieves a high degree rigidity with low design and construction costs and, therefore, makes a chassis-reinforcing battery door unnecessary.